I’d like to take a moment to clear up some misconceptions and explain my thoughts on creating my painting “Lord Vader’s Persuasion…” The main reason for creating this piece was to show Vader leading his troops into battle. I wanted to actually show him in the midst of his beloved 501st Squad, being the leader he was born to be. This was not a scene we were able to see in the films themselves, and obviously, it would be a scene taking place between Episodes 3 and 4. This art has caught the imagination of Star Wars fans around the world, and has inspired me to create other scenes capturing potential story elements that were not in the screenplays, but are part of the canon of the Star Wars history.

The two most confusing elements of Lord Vader’s Persuasion are the inclusion of the Imperial Guards (the red armored figures surrounding Vader) and the fact that Vader is rising above the squad. The Imperial Guards were introduced in Episode 6 as visual elements in the background, in scenes featuring the Emperor and Lord Vader. They are not exclusively the Emperor’s private, but the elite of the Imperial forces used to protect those of the highest power. So the Imperial Guard would certainly be on hand to protect a high value target such as Vader during an invasion operation. Vader’s loyal 501st troops form a phalanx around them, always pushing forward towards Victory!

Why is Vader above the troops? He is not on a hoverboard, nor is he standing on a trooper’s shoulders! We know from the end of Episode 3 that Anakin/Vader is fearless in carrying out the Emperor’s order. Why would Vader not be fearless in leading his Troops into battle? Like any commander worthy of his troops’ respect, he will join them in battle. And as a powerful leading figure, he will not hide behind his troops, but will be where they can see him and be inspired by him. During the course of the battle, Vader uses the FORCE to levitate himself above the fray, leading and directing his troops ever forward, knowing he will become the primary target of his opponents. He is unafraid because he uses the power of The Force for protection.

I have also taken an artistic license and compacted the field of battle so that I could show a few other elements that would be involved in this type of skirmish. The officers and scouts to the far left would not so close to the battlefield in a real situation, and the ATAT/ATSTs would not be so packed together. But the art I wanted to create would show the full impact of all elements of the Imperial Forces, so I pulled a few visual tricks out of my creative hat.

Aesthetic Placement of Elements in the Art: Speaking artistically about the art, there are reasons I put elements where they are in the art. As you can see, there is an explanation for what is the battle scene from a “warfare” point of view. But to paint what I wanted, I had to have both an “Artistic” reason and a “Realism” reason. When laying out the the art, the first thing I noticed artistically was that the piece was primarily black and white. Black and greys in the Vader figure and white and greys in the trooper armor. I found working the Imperial guard into the piece not only added a focusing element, to bring your eye towards the main element–Vader–but also added that bold stroke of color I needed. That red would eventually tie in with the red of Vader’s lightsaber and the red/oranges of the explosions in the background. With that element of red, it was no longer necessary to add another bold statement of color, because the contrast of the dark figure of Vader made him the focus against the whites and the greys of the rest of the piece.

One Last Visual Element to Note: There is one last visual element that you may not see right off, but if you look closely at the art and let your eye roam, you will probably focus on Vader first, then follow the line of his arm and hand deflecting the blasterbolt. Your eye will follow the red of the ATAT explosion and smoke back over Vader, then follow the path of his Lightsaber back down to the far left of the art, now seeing the Officers and Scouts. As your eye follows where they are looking, it catches the front-most Stormtrooper with his arm raised, pointing the troopers forward. We follow that line through the bottom of the art into the field of troopers. From here, the curve upward of the red and blue blasterbolts brings the eye back up to the exploding ATAT in the background and then right back to Vader.

There was much more that went into this piece and the contribution of the 501st MidwestGarrison in helping me shoot reference for this cannot be overstated. But this should help you understand a bit of what is going through my head when creating a piece of art.

A special thanks to Jesus Diaz of the SPLOID column for Gizmodowho wrote this piece today about my Star Wars art (including Lord Vader’s Persuasion):

For those that responded to my last blog and Facebook posting, I appreciate your kind words and support. While it was disheartening to get that news, it will not be my last opportunity to create new Star Wars art. Keep your bookmarks here for coming news of more projects ahead!

As most of you know by now, I will not be attending SW Celebration 7 next year. I had planned on having a sale at Celebration of what was left of my Artist Proofs of previous year’s Celebration prints, along with the new exclusive print. Since that isn’t happening, and I’ve had a lot of fans and collectors asking if I was going to have a Holiday Print Sale this year, I’ve decided to hold it now. Here is the link to my Star Wars Holiday Prints Sale:

Each print on the webpage has a PayPal button for ordering and if you want to buy more than one it will make a shopping cart for you. **Shipping is FREEworldwide.**

I am now offering the last of my Artist Proofs at a substantial discount for a limited time (I will take this sale down on Dec. 31st, so those who have gift funds after the holidays that they would like to spend here may do so before the sale ends.)

All Star Wars Dave Dorman Prints You Purchase Will Be:

Signed By Me

Marked an an A/P (Artist’s Proof).

I will be happy to personalize the prints for you as well. (You can leave a note on the Paypal purchase form).

Extra Bonus–As a thank you for all your support over the years, I will add small remarque (original pencil drawing) on every print that is ordered at no extra charge.

Sent out using Paypal’s shipping, which will include a notification to you of when your order shipped and a tracking number to follow your shipment.

All orders in the U.S. made before Dec. 19 will get to you before Christmas.

I only have a limited number of these prints left, and this sale may be thelast time some or most of these will be available.

AND A RARE FIND: I also have one more newly discovered print from my private collection to offer for the first time on my webpage. This is “Knockin on Jabba’s Door” — a small 11×14 print produced as an incentive for purchasing the now out-of-print “Jabba’s Palace ” print.

So go ahead and check out the page. I hope you find something you like that might brightens your holidays, birthday, or special occasion, or those of your loved ones.

Thank you again for all of your support of my work over the years. Every smile and handshake at a show, or email or private message on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter unexpectedly saying you like my work, makes my enjoyment of this work grow more and more.

As always, my own I.P., the WASTED LANDS OMNIBUS book (published by Magnetic-Press) special gift offer is still available, and that link is here:

If any of you follow REDNA, or Ander Kretz, he’s a host of the Ootinicast show on Twitch.TV and tomorrow night he’s interviewing me at 6:30 p.m. Central, 7:30 p.m. Eastern, 4:30 p.m. Pacific. Here’s a link to the site where you can see my Skype video interview live: http://Twitch.TV/R3DN4.

Redna’s show is dedicated to #SWTOR (Star Wars: The Old Republic) which is a game I play nightly, so if you’re a Star Warsfan, the show will cover a lot of that ground.

For those of you in the U.S. who are following me, I hope you’re having a Happy Independence Day! We are celebrating with friends tonight and looking forward to taking a few hours off (yes, we solopreneurs are both working today). I will always believe the United States is exceptional and the greatest nation on this planet, despite many citizens and politicians’ very best attempts to collapse our system from within. I am hoping that those who reproduce and vote every four years are awakened, paying very close attention, and will vote in future politicians who genuinely value our U.S. Constitution, our freedom, and our liberty. I also encourage you to do whatever you can to help our Wounded Warriors and our military families, who suffer from the uninformed, unwitting whims of a highly military unfriendly government. What has gone down in the Veterans’ Administration over the past several decades is unforgivable and that guilt is on both sides of the political aisle. I mourn for every single military family who has lost a loved one due to the greed and stupidity of those in charge at the V.A.

For those of you who haven’t seen it, here is a link to my interview on Chicago’s WTTW last week regarding the new Lucasfilm Museum of Narrative Artsthat Chicago was awarded by George Lucas. http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/tags/dave-dorman (just click on the photo of my art).

We are looking forward to the new museum and I personally am eager to see George’s massive collection of my favorite illustrators from the 20th Century. Somehow, people think Norman Rockwell is the only one George collects. I guess they are just unaware that there are other illustration giants out there.

HEAVY METAL REVISITED Documentary News

In other news, our HEAVY METAL REVISITED documentary with Evan Beloff and Frederic Bohbot of Bunbury Films is in production, and I hope to grab some footage in Austin, TX next week of Harry Knowles and Bernie Wrightson (and if we get very lucky, Robert Rodriguez). Here’s a an older video trailer to give you a feel for what we’ve been working on over the past several years. http://vimeo.com/11669127

Last Friday MarkVoss and our production team did a really fun interview with Sammy Hagar, who co-wrote the theme song HEAVY METAL with Jim Peterik, and Sammy had some surprising things to say.

As I mentioned, next week I will be in Austin, TX for Capital City Con, so I look forward to seeing my Texas friends there. I will have plenty of art for everyone to buy, but I tend to sell out quickly, so please be sure to hit me up on Day 1.

In the next few months you’ll see some changes to my website as I transfer over to a new fan management system with StageBloc.com – they have a terrific all-in-one solution of eCommerce, blogging, social media outreach and fan club management that will better serve you, my fans, and help me make more informed decisions on which products you want to see more of, and where you’d like me to appear for shows.

For those of you who are interested in what goes on behind the scenes here at the Dorman household, check out my wife’s blog at http://comicbookwife.com

In my garage cleaning frenzy, I’ve discovered a lot of fun items and toys (many of which I’m going to be selling online, so I will keep you posted), but this particular one fascinated my wife, who had no idea I fully rendered this Star Wars vehicle for Lucasfilm for the Dark Empire 2 cover based on an interior design by Cam Kennedy. A fan at Celebration Europe came up to me and gave me 2 of the actual toys created from my creature design & comic book cover art, so here are some images of them:

My Star Wars comic book cover, the vehicle I designed, and the toy based on it

The cover I’m holding is actually a European edition that was also discovered during my garage cleaning frenzy – I’m unsure which language this is in.

And here’s a side view of the toy:

If you are the fan from Celebration Europe who gave me these wonderful toys, please speak up so I can give you proper credit publicly – I thank you so much.

Through an agreement with Lucasfilm, I am able to sell my remaining unsold prints from SWCVI. I have approximately 30 prints available and I am happy to announce I can now offer them to those who could not attend the show in person.

Additionally, I wanted to update everyone that I will be attending Cincinnati Comic Expo in less than two weeks – from September 22-23. I want to shout out a special thanks to our friend Kevin Dugan, who made us aware of this convention. The headline to this story is that Stephen Bissetteand I will reunite for the very first time since our Eisner and Bram Stoker Award-winning book,“ALIENS: TRIBES.”Stephen and I will do a panel on that book, which was revolutionary for graphic novel publishing, and still holds up today.

ALIENS: TRIBES by Stephen Bissette and Dave Dorman

Additionally, Stephen Bissettewas my classmate and fellow “Kubie” at The Joe Kubert School of Comic and Graphic Art, so he and I will do a panel on our fond remembrances and appreciation of Joe Kubert. Here is the tribute art that Neal Adams did of Joe Kubert’s graduates – I was honored to be in the piece, and Stephen Bissette stands beside me. Jan Duursema and Tom Mandrake were also in our class.

Dave Dorman, Top Left, Next to Stephen Bissette in Neal Adams Tribute to Joe Kubert

I was saddened to see a lot of “trolls” disrespecting Joe Kubert, his students, and his school on Stephen’s blog, and we will address those controversial comments as well. I can assure you that Joe Kubert always thought of his students first, as was evidenced when he cut me loose during my first portfolio review; Joe felt that I had “graduated” in terms of what I could learn there. I wanted to learn to paint covers, and since I attended during their second year of operation, they weren’t set up to teach me color work. Joe could have continued to collect tuition from me, but Joe Kubert put me and my career needs first, ahead of the much-needed tuition in the early days. (I also want to mention that Stephen Bissette is also reuniting with his “Swamp Thing” collaborators for the first time during a panel at Cincinnati Comic Expo, so attendees may want to see that as well).

In other news, I’m assistant coaching my young son’s flag football team, and that has been a lot of fun. Many of you know that football was my sport at Friendly, MD high school in the late ’70s; I played defensive end in my junior year on the team that won the state championship, the first in our history. Those were heady times, fondly remembered.

On October 6th at 2 p.m., I will be signing at the Barnes & Noble in West Dundee, IL, helping the patrons celebrate STAR WARS DAY. If you live in the Chicagoland/Northern Illinois area, I hope you can come out and join us.

On October 26 – 28, I will be exhibiting at Geek Media Expo in Franklin, Tennessee and I hope that those of you who live in the area can come out and see me. While you’re there, be sure to check out my friend Leonardo Ramirez’ steampunk children’s book, “JUPITER CHRONICLES.”Joining us will be Michael Koske, my wifeDenise’s client, who is a “walker” or zombie on AMC TV’sWALKING DEAD series. Michael is in the brotherhood we know as the 501st, and we look forward to seeing him again after Star Wars Celebration VI.

That’s all the news for today. I thank you for your time, interest and support.